Residence Time Distribution for Tubular

Reactors
Luiz R. de Souza Leonardo 1
Jr. , Lorenz 1

1. Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil

Introduction: In the core of Chemical

Engineering is the reactor design that include
most of all scientific disciplines. The reactor, in
general, are treated ideally: mixed and plug-flow
patterns. Unfortunately, it is observed in the real Figure 2 – Tracer injection

world a very different behavior from that expected. 0,50

Thus, to characterize nonideal reactors is used, 0,45 0,0080

Concentration (mol/L)
0,40 0,0070

among others, residence time distribution function 0,35

0,30
0,0060
0,0050
E(t), mean residence time tm and cumulative 0,25

E(t)
Experimental 0,0040
0,20 Experimental
Model
0,0030
distribution function F(t). The aim of this present 0,15
0,10 0,0020
Model

work is to determine in the COMSOL 0,05

0,00
0,0010
0,0000
®
Multiphysics a distribution of residence time of a
0 200
Time (s)
400 600
0 200 400 600 800
Time (s)

tubular reactor that is used, didactically, in Figure 3 - Reactor outlet concentration Figure 4 – RTD curve

0,009
the Chemical Engineering Laboratory in 0,008
0,007
Federal University of Parana. 0,006
0,005 reator original

E(t)
Computational Methods: The equation that 0,004 reator modificado
0,003
models the flow of fluid throughout the reactor is 0,002
0,001
the Navier-Stokes equations. 0
0 200 400 600 800
Time (s)

T
ρ u. 𝛻 u = 𝛻. [−pI + μ(𝛻u + 𝛻u) +F Figure 3 – RTD curve of original and modified
reactor

Conclusions: it is observed that the modeling of

Where, u is the velocity vector, ρ is the density of the reactor showed good agreement with the
the fluid, μ is the viscosity, p is the pressure and experimental results, the correlation coefficient of
F is a body force term, such as gravity. 0.97, Figure 3. Furthermore, with simulation it was
As the flow is incompressible, possible to verify the hydrodynamic behavior of the
flow - preferred paths, areas of recirculation and
ρ𝛻. u = 0 stagnant zones - allowing to establish the non-
ideality of the reactor, Figure 1. The studies
The mesh size element was calibrated for fluid showed a space-time of 6.10 min. and an average
dynamics, and left to "normal" size - the highest residence time of 3.05 min (original reactor) and
possible for that particular calibration. 3.38 min (modified reactor). Importantly that closer
The phenomena of tracer’s diffusion and are values of space-time and residence time
convection, Figure 2, are modeled by the average, there is an indication that the reactor will
continuity equation together with the equation of operate more adequately. However, the
the overall flow: hydrodynamic problems are not obvious, that is
why the importance of computational fluid
𝜕ci dynamics in the analysis, design and operation of
+ 𝛻. −Di 𝛻ci + u. 𝛻ci = R i
𝜕t reactors.
Ni = −Di 𝛻ci + uci References
1. Levenspiel, O. Chemical reaction engineering.
Where, ci is the tracer’s concentration, Di is John Wiley & Sons. 3rd ed., 1999
diffusivity and Ni is the diffusion flux. 2. Fogler. H. S. Elements of chemical reaction
Results: engineering. Pearson Education. 4th ed., 2006
3.Hill, Charles. An introduction to chemical
engineering kinetics and reactor design. John
Wiley & Sons, 1977.
4. Lide, D. R. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Figure 1 – (a) Original Reactor; (b) Modified Reactor Physics.

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2014 COMSOL Conference in Curitiba